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Home , Chad, Niger

LAKE ’S UNSEEN CRISIS Voices of and internally displaced people from and

1 The Basin, to my mind, at this stage, is the most under-reported and most under-funded and least addressed of the big crises we face.

United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien, 24 May, 2016.

Cover image: A young internally displaced girl from Niger, Assaga Camp, Region, Niger. Photo: Vincent Tremeau/. Above: Women in Assaga displacement camp, Niger. Vincent Tremeau/Oxfam

The violent seven-year conflict originating in Nigeria has intensified in the last three years and spread across borders into Niger, Chad and , causing a growing humanitarian crisis in a region known as the Lake .

This is ’s fastest growing displacement crisis. Millions of people remain unassisted. With both host It is taking place in one of the poorest and most and displaced communities exhausting their resources fragile parts of the – out of sight and out of and falling deeper into poverty; with localized - mind of world leaders. Across the Lake Chad Basin like situations developing, and high mortality rates from countries, 21 million people are affected by the crisis. and disease; and with people at risk of 9.2 million are in desperate need of humanitarian neglect, violence and exploitation even within official assistance, and over 2.6 million people have camps, the humanitarian response needs to rapidly been forced to flee their homes in search of safety improve to save lives and protect those in need. and protection. This paper aims to give a voice to some of the women, There is no sign that the conflict will end in the near girls, boys and men displaced by this violence, as well future. With the onset of both the lean season and as to their generous hosts. 35 displaced people and the rainy season from July till September, Nigeria host living in seven locations in Nigeria and is officially experiencing an economic crisis, and Niger were interviewed during April and May 2016. They predicted severe flooding makes the prospects for told us that one of their main challenges was access the region grim. Despite the scale of the crisis, it to food and income-earning opportunities; they do not receives very little attention; knowledge of it is not want to depend on others. They recounted some of the widespread and only 25 percent of the $562m violence and abuses they had experienced and their requested for the Lake Chad Basin humanitarian ongoing insecurity, and expressed a simple wish for response has been received as of 15 August 2016. education, healthcare and water for their children.

Our biggest problem is food: we can’t find enough to eat. We don’t have any money-making activities to buy enough food. We receive , but it is insufficient.

40 year old Hadjia

2 RECOMMENDATIONS

Donor governments and agencies must:

• Urgently increase political and financial support • Protect the vulnerable through the scale-up of protection to save hundreds of thousands of lives, particularly support services such as social and psychosocial services, in north-eastern Nigeria. access to healthcare and education. Strengthen the UN Rights Up Front mechanisms to ensure a collective • Urgently scale up emergency food assistance, nutrition responsibility to prevent the most serious violations, and livelihood support to guard against potential famine, including forced recruitment and arbitrary arrest and with a focus on interventions which give people the detention of men and boys. Particular attention should self-sufficiency they want. be paid to the needs of women and girls, who are at high risk from protection threats, including specific livelihood • Provide access to food and basic services – including and prevention strategies that protect women and girls free healthcare, water and sanitation and education – from violence, rape and sexual exploitation; support as well as income-generating opportunities, for the Nigerian government to implement the Declaration displaced people who are living outside formal camps. of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which it has endorsed. • Ensure host communities as well as IDPs are equally prioritized for humanitarian and development • Invest in further strengthening UN, government assistance. Host communities have generously shared and NGO leadership, decision making, coordination their meagre resources and also need access to food, and accountability of the humanitarian response. basic services and livelihoods support. Strengthen the and organizational capacity of local actors and coordination in field locations closer to affected populations.

The governments of Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger must:

• Alert the world to the magnitude of the humanitarian camps for displaced people; management and security crisis and the scale of need in the Lake Chad Basin; should be provided by civilian bodies and civilian law ensure regular and up-to-date information is shared enforcement agencies. so as to facilitate a rapid scale-up of the response through the mobilization of resources and support from • Uphold the right of people to flee conflict and find refuge regional and international donor governments alongside from violence. Ensure that relocation, including that which increased investment from the national budget. forms part of military operations, and return of people, take place voluntarily to well-prepared sites where adequate • Provide safe and unhindered access to communities, assistance, living conditions and protection are available. particularly in insecure and inaccessible areas; introduce fast-track measures and clear, systematic processes • Develop a framework for durable solutions to to facilitate visas for international humanitarian workers displacement that involves voluntary, safe and dignified and the importation of urgent relief items; and reduce returns, local integration or settlement elsewhere, based other administrative barriers. on informed decisions by displaced people themselves.

• Prioritize the safety of civilians, their dignity and • Protect and facilitate people’s freedom of movement human rights under national laws, as well as regional and access to their livelihoods including fishing, frameworks such as the Convention and the farming and markets. AU Convention, and international human rights and humanitarian law and standards, including UN • National governments should work with the Economic Security Council Resolution 1325 for the protection Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the and empowerment of women living through conflict and Economic Community of Central African States insecurity. Train military and civilian government personnel (ECCAS) and international donors to address the root on their obligations and people’s rights under these laws, causes of the conflict through investing significantly and strengthen accountability mechanisms. from national budgets and aid programmes in marginalized areas affected by the conflict. This should • Ensure adequate security and protection for affected include increasing support to state and local authorities, persons against physical abuse, assault, sexual investing in infrastructure and basic service provision, violence, exploitation or loss of life in camps, supporting sustainable livelihoods and policies to tackle and guarantee their freedom of movement without environmental degradation in the Lake Chad Basin , discrimination. Maintain the civilian character of the and strengthening people’s access to justice.

3 ESCALATING HUNGER AND LIVELIHOODS CRISIS

Across the Lake Chad basin countries of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, 6.3 million people are severely food insecure; 4.4 million of these people are in Nigeria. The people in the Lake Chad Basin region are some of the poorest in the world and even under normal circumstance suffer from high levels of hunger and malnutrition.

More than 65,000 people in pockets of North East forced into transactional sex in exchange for food or Nigeria are already experiencing famine, and over money, or to secure permission to leave camps where one million people are one step away from famine. movement is restricted. These are the people located in newly accessible areas, and areas which are on the frontlines of the Unless they receive urgent food and nutritional support, conflict with active military operations ongoing. an estimated 49,000 children – out of approximately 244,000 children suffering from severe acute Violence and displacement are taking a toll on malnutrition in Nigeria’s Borno state – will die by people’s livelihoods. Insecurity is preventing people the end of the year if they do not receive treatment. from farming, fishing and trading across borders. Many farmers have not cultivated their lands for three With food and income ranking as people‘s top concerns, consecutive years because of the insecurity; the access to earning opportunities and markets are vital river and lake on which fishers have relied have been in tackling the growing hunger. declared off-limits by some of the governments as part of military operations. The conflict has led to the closure of some of the largest markets in Africa, impacting cross-border trade in , dried fish and agricultural products. The devaluation of the as a result of the drop in global oil prices, combined with the scarcity of agricultural produce as a result of the conflict, has caused the cost of food to more than double in Nigeria, with similar risks posed to its neighbouring countries.

We have been living here for six months now. We remain hopeful. In particular, we hope they (government) will allow the market to take place again. The government has so far forbidden it on the grounds that it We come from Damassak in Nigeria. supports . We fled to a village in Niger after Boko Ibrahim, 60, a male IDP in Kindanji spontaneous Haram attacked our . The Government displacement site, Niger. of Niger then moved us to a camp. Thank God, because we generally get to eat and While internally displaced persons (IDPs) are the most food insecure, generous communities have taken them have water here. The real problem is that in, sharing what little resources and assets they have. we do not have money to invest in our The host population themselves are therefore very livelihoods. It is difficult to buy clothes for vulnerable, and the economic situation in Nigeria and the children, shoes or food to supplement the regional countries is plunging them in to hunger. what we are given. I live in this hut with Many families are reaching breaking point because my wife and children. of the hunger and are being forced into extreme Abba, 61, male, Nigerian refugee, Sayam camp, coping strategies as a result, including begging. Niger. Photo: Vincent Tremeau/Oxfam Women struggling to feed their families are being

4 PROTECTING THE VULNERABLE

Everyone shared stories of violence, fear and abuse.

Men and boys have been targeted in killings, of this conflict, and thousands of women and girls forced recruitment and arbitrary detention, including have found themselves pregnant and subject to by security forces and civilian vigilante groups. stigmatization by their communities as a result. Women and girls have suffered and continue to face grave violations including forced , Within the camps and communities, heavy- sexual violence and exploitation. Over 2,000 women handed military and security tactics are and girls have so far been abducted. The use also contributing to feelings of persecution of rape as a weapon of war is a common feature and vulnerability.

They [the insurgents] told us that if we ‘tried anything stupid’, they would kill us. They came shooting and shouting at people to surrender to them. I was among those they captured, but my grandmother escaped. We were held hostage in a building for about three days. The building next to us also had hostages in it. Some days later we heard the sound of airplanes, and before we knew what was happening we heard bombs falling and explosions. Some people were injured, like me, and some died. I suffered a broken arm and wounds to my leg. The insurgents tried to treat our wounds, but later they left us to our fate. Luckily someone found us, and he went to seek help. So far I have had three operations on my hands and three on my legs.

Grace, 22, Yola IDP Camp, Nigeria (pictured above). Photo: Vincent Tremeau/Oxfam

The military associate us with Boko Haram. We do not understand why, but that is how it is. We suffer from stigmatization, especially the young people. But if we had connections with Boko Haram, we would not have fled and suffered here.

Dalla, 40, female IDP, Kindanji spontaneous displacement site, Niger. Photo: Vincent Tremeau/ Oxfam

5 A Risky Return

People return to their towns and villages, often to I am a wife and of 11 children. find their homes and communities destroyed. Others, We ran from Madagali about eight who return too early, are subject to renewed attacks, months ago when we were attacked by the repeated displacement and loss of life. insurgents. It was horrific. We walked for We went back to Madagali in March days in the bush until we got to Yola. I went 2015 for six weeks. Everything had back in May 2015 to give my mum some food. Since she was too old to run with been destroyed. One day, while working us we had to leave her and my disabled on our farms we were attacked by the daughter behind. I have been really worried insurgents, about 10 people were killed about them and heard of the torture my and several injured. Most of us took refuge mum was put through by the insurgents. in the bush for three days. The insurgents She was beaten mercilessly, stripped naked stole our food and cattle and some people and then left without food. Madagali is still were captured including my wife and not safe to return to; there are no facilities 25-year-old daughter, I couldn’t do anything there – everything has been destroyed. to save them. I had to come back to St There is no clean water for drinking and Theresa . Each day that other purposes, no health facilities, no passes I can’t help but imagine what schools for our children; in fact there is no my are going through. I wish we life there. It was so scary going back with never went back. the constant sounds of the guns.

Ouseini, 64, male IDP, St Theresa Catholic Church, Christina, 40, female IDP, St Theresa, Catholic Church camp, Yola, Nigeria. Yola, Nigeria

HOST COMMUNITIES UNDER PRESSURE

Over 80 percent of displaced people in the region are seeking refuge among host communities, including relatives, friends or even strangers. As a result, some of the poorest people in the world have been sharing what meagre resources they have for up to two to three years.

In addition to the 11 people in his own family, Elhadjimi (pictured below) is also hosting a displaced family of 10 in his house in village, Niger. Although he doesn’t complain, the situation is placing considerable strain on him and his family. We eat together, we pray together, we As result of this generosity, communities are share the water, the courtyard, and our food. becoming quickly impoverished, multiplying the They must remain here as long as it takes numbers of people already in need of assistance for the situation to stabilize. and forcing both host communities and displaced people to put themselves in danger to meet their Elhadjimi, 63, host, Toumour village, Niger. basic needs. Photo: Vincent Tremeau/Oxfam

6 THE NEED FOR A COMPREHENSIVE RESPONSE

Overshadowed by governments’ focus on political and military objectives, the magnitude of this unfolding humanitarian crisis goes woefully unseen and unaddressed.

The international community and the governments of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon were slow to recognize and acknowledge the scale of this crisis, and as a result, the humanitarian response has lacked capacity, coordination and funds.

World leaders will meet on 19 and 20 September 2016 at two high level summits in New York to discuss how to share responsibility for refugees. IDPs, however, will receive hardly any attention. The Lake Chad Basin highlights why focusing only on displaced people who have borders overlooks a large group of displaced people who have similar protection and assistance needs to refugees. While rich countries accept less than 20 percent of the world’s refugees, they also give too little support to the world’s poorest communities that provide the ’s share of support to refugees and displaced people. Governments in the region and international donors need to think beyond military and political approaches and take urgent action to stop people’s rapid decline into poverty and Child playing at St Theresa Catholic Church, Yola, Nigeria. potential famine. Photo: Ibrahim Dung/Oxfam.

A security approach alone will not provide a from those working in the humanitarian, development long-term solution to this crisis. The Lake Chad Basin and security sectors. As well as an urgent increase has long suffered inequality, marginalization and in the humanitarian response, attention must be underdevelopment, which have in turn bred conflict. paid to addressing the underlying drivers and root To address this requires a comprehensive response causes of the conflict.

Our Collective Response

ACF, Action Aid, Christian Aid, COOPI, CRS, DRC, International Medical Corps, Intersos, IRC, , NRC, Oxfam, Plan International, PUI and are supporting people affected by the conflict in the Lake Chad Basin through providing water, sanitation, hygiene, food, nutrition and livelihood support, shelter, education, health and protection activities.

All sources can be found in the full-length version of this report, published on 19 August 2016.

Lake Chad’s Unseen Crisis: Voices of refugees and internally displaced people from Niger and Nigeria. http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/lake-chads-unseen-crisis-voices-of-refugees-and-internally- displaced-people-fro-618488

7 Young girl, Sayam , Diffa, Niger. Photo: Vincent Tremeau/Oxfam

We planned to sleep in the jungle at For now, I can’t go home. But if night and return to our land during the peace comes, I hope we will return. day. Unfortunately it did not work and the Maikossai, 45, female refugee from Damassak, market of Tchoukoudjani was attacked, Nigeria, now living in Gagamari village, Niger they abducted people, burned houses. It’s been a year since we fled, and now I decided to go back to see things for we will have to start over again. myself. There were no schools, the water had Madou, 48, male IDP, who was moving with his family been contaminated with dead bodies; only the from Kindjandi spontaneous site in Niger to a camp to try to access assistance elderly were living there. The daily sound of gunfire and bombs frightened me. We agreed that I would stay in Yola with the children We have been here for 13 months since they have started school. It makes me and will never return to our village. I was very happy that they have their education a wholesaler. I exported merchandise after everything that’s happened. We’ve to Cameroon. I had a house and a car, been relying on the church for food and but now we have nothing. on organizations like Oxfam and ICRC.

Moustafa, 60, male refugee from Bama, Nigeria, Brenda, 38, female IDP, St Theresa Catholic Church, now living in Gagamari village, Niger Yola, Nigeria